Come along virtually with the Baker Family as they live the cruising chapter of their lives!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Thoughts from Brad

October 27, 2009

I have to admit I like the challenge of a multiple day passage. There are few things that are better than being at sea. In past Vic-Maui races I have commented on the blogs we kept during those races, talking about how wonderful and real it is out here. You tend to lose the moment until you go out again. Last night or perhaps I should say this morning on the 4am to 7am watch I had one of those perfect moments. I had just shut off the engine as the wind had filled to 12 knots on the beam (that's about 15 mph coming from the side of the boat for you land lubbers out there). After getting the the sails set and trimmed properly I took a moment to relax and listen to my Ipod. In honor of my good friend Tom Huseby, I played Southern Cross by Crosby Stills and Nash. Tom happened to be in San Diego and he treated us to brunch Sunday morning. Tom had received an email a week or two earlier from me relating what a good life this is. I guess it made him feel a bit down, but when he got into his car Southern Cross was on the radio. He told me he took it as a sign. For the rest of you out there who think you may want to do something like this someday. This crusing thing really, really doesn't suck in a big way.

Well I'm in the cockpit It's about 10:30am PDT. The wind is blowing 15-20 on a broad reach. We should make Turtle Bay sometime tomorrow morning. You see, yesterday we left San Diego heading for Mexico in the cruiser's rally called the Baha ha ha. We didn't leave San Diego a minute to soon. If we'd stayed there much longer I think we would have spent our entire cruising budget right there. San Diego is a cruisers provisioning and passage preparation paradise. All the services and stuff you need is right there. In San Diego, we purchased Dinghy Wheels, more engine spares a new AIS receiver, new laptop computer for PJ (happy birthday PJ!) not to mention taking the kids to Lego Land and the San Diego Zoo. The money flowed out of our pockets. The trip from Seattle and all the stops in between we managed to keep spending under fairly good control. That all changed in San Diego. Ah well things needed doing and we got them done.

I feel very good about our boat preparation. we do have some week links but on the whole I believe we are pretty darn well prepared. Capaz is indeed a capable vessel, and I have a tremendous amount of confidence in this little ships ability to deliver us safely. On that note the forecast is for the wind to increase through tonight perhaps reaching 25 to 30 knots with possible higher gusts. The waves are also supposed to build perhaps to as high as 15 feet. The next scheduled stop is Turtle pay. Many of the Ha ha participants are going to hole up for the night tonight in one of the many anchorages that line the coast. We are going to continue on. Capaz is one of the faster boats in the fleet and we should will make good time to Turtle bay. Right now Turtle bay is about 140 miles away, which is less than 24 hours travel. The timing should be good bringing us into the bay in daylight tomorrow morning. I like the daylight part since None of us have been into Turtle Bay before and I don't relish the idea of sailing into an anchorage that I haven't been to befor at night.

PJ has pretty much kept you all up to date on the happenings here on Capaz. It really has been a fantastic trip so far and we haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. That will soon change though. I'd have to say the highlight of the trip for me so far was San Simeon. I'll never forget the time we spent anchored there. It is a very rugged place, vibrant with life. It was absolutely amazing to watch the thousands of sea birds that were following the bait balls through our anchorage with Pelicans and other types of birds plunge diving right next to the boat and actually swimming under the boat. The seals followed the food as well massing where the birds were. It was like watching the nature channel only not on TV but just off the back step of our house. The Hearst Castle was also an unexpected delight. Other highlights include snorkeling with the kids in Catalina Harbozr on Catalina Island. I believe Bryce wrote a piece on that for the next Capaz Chronicle.

I turned on the radar to see if I could tell how far away a sailboat is that is crossing behind our stern. I couldn't see the sailboat on radar but found a large target about 9 miles dead ahead. I picked up visual confirmation. It's a larger ship. I'm going to sign off now and go check AIS to see if I can figure out where this guy is headed. Cheers!

2 comments:

Guys, you definitely do not need dinghy wheels! Sell them to someone on the Haha who is staying in MX. Everything we have heard of FP and "beyond" is that there is no, repeat no, need for dinghy wheels.

I'm not sure there all that necessary in MX, either, ours never left the lazarette. Maybe you can still get some $$ back?

We only have one coastal passage under our figurative belt - from Olympia, WA to Winchester Bay, OR. A total of 585 NM in eight days. That was with three days sitting out weather on Grays Harbor. But we found nothing about the passage that we wouldn't want to do again! Indeed, we are looking forward to heading back up there this spring if at all possible for a couple of weeks. We would love to be heading south instead, but that isn't possible yet.Enjoy!